Looking to rest of season
A promising four wins from the first seven rounds has Drouin senior football coach Jordan Kingi looking forward to the challenges ahead over the rest of the season.
The youngest of only three playing coaches in Gippsland League Kingi also has onfield assistance from Eddie Morris, both in their second years in the roles.
Kingi says there have been a number of factors behind the Hawks’ performances this year.
The team had a strong preseason that kicked off as long ago as last November, some of the young players with some senior experience behind them – Liam Anderson, Clayton Kingi and Joe Collins among them – have stepped up a level and some new faces this year have been important to the progress made.
The new faces include Harry Wans, Todd and Bailey Beck and Chris Robinson.
Wans a former junior at Drouin returned to the club, as did Todd Beck who spent a couple of years in the WGFL after previously being at Drouin.
His brother, Bailey, was most recently at Gippsland Power and Robinson joined the Hawks from EDFL club Poowong.
That group and the ongoing development of younger players have complimented established key players Bob McCallum, Morris, Tom Barr, coach Kingi and Liam Axford.
Co-captains Jamie Ferguson and Rhys Salter are also thriving in their roles.
Jordan Kingi says the extra maturity of many of the players over the past year has given them the confidence to “take the game on”.
Everybody bought into the pre-season and know their roles in the team, he said.
Kingi also had high praise for the contribution of fitness coach and advisor Pete Edwards.
“He has been with the team since November and is very professional and positive”.
That has allowed Eddie (assistant coach) and myself to really concentrate on the playing side, Kingi said.